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We (Nepali) have been using this material to make lokta paper for a long time now. These papers (Nepali Kaagaz) are used mainly today for official documents.
apparently https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne_bholua and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne_papyracea, the usual species for lokta paper, are in a different genus in the same family as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgeworthia_chrysantha; is it possible the argeli mentioned is an edgeworthia species rather than a daphne species?
edit: twic found https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40039860 that it's edgeworthia gardneri, which was originally classified as daphne gardneri by the gardner who originally named it
Found this excerpt from [1]
> I dedicate this beautiful genus to Mr. M. P. Edgeworth, Esq., to whom we owe a valuable description of the vegetation and agriculture in the Sikh states in northwestern India (Hooker's Journal of Botany, II. p. 267), and I combine this with the wish to also pay tribute to his famous sister, Miss Maria Edgeworth, who has become dear to all educated people through her writings, which are marked by rare depth and fullness of mind and spirit, as a warm admirer of nature and the natural sciences, with a modest monument.
Now I'm curious about the reason behind its "gardneri" name.
> Edgeworthia Gardneri nob. Tab. I. E. with petiolate, oblong-elliptic leaves, acute on both ends, glabrous above, slightly hairy below, peduncles thickened at the apex, hemispherical capitula, involucre with lanceolate acuminate leaves subequal to the flowers, flowers subvillous-tomentose with yellowish pubescence. Hab. in Nepal, where it was discovered by Mr. Wallich in 1820.
There are too many high-level botanical terms here, I can't understand anything.
[1] : https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34664378#page/293/m...
> I can't understand anything.
Is the typical botanical idiomatic problem.
Petiolate: Leaves join the stem by a narrow "tail".
oblong-elliptic: Shape of the leaf, self-explanatory, also indicates that the leaf is entire (blade shaped as one continuous structure)
acute on both ends: blade leaf starts and ends in a point (that is short in both cases).
glabrous above: upper surface smooth
slightly hairy below: surface below covered by tiny "bumps" or vesicles to protect from dry or chill conditions (feels hairy to the touch)
Peduncles thickened at the apex: Ambiguous, but that "tail" is more thick in one extreme (probably before to join the leaf blade).
Hemispherical capitula: Flowers "glued together" over a disk, and arranged as a half sphere. Is not exactly like a daisy, but you pick the idea.
involucre with lanceolate acuminate leaves subequal to the flowers:
That "disk" has also spear-shaped bracts (accessory small leaves) that are more or less as long as the flowers are.
Flowers subvillous-tomentose with yellowish pubescence
Flowers in this genus have a strange (and pleasant) plush texture. They are covered by a dense layer of short yellow (or red) hairs. Is very strange the first time that you see it, but also adds a lot of charm and coolness to the species.
> There are too many high-level botanical terms here, I can't understand anything.
That's easily fixable, for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTsAFpSXj7Y
Daphne is a complicated material to manipulate. All its parts are very poisonous. Edgeworthia is a little safer, it seems.
Edgeworthia?
Anyone else reminded of the Phoenix Wright games?
That's cool, is it something tourists could buy?
Yes absolutely. Lokta papers can be found at mostly any stationeries in Nepal and notebooks of various designs are made using this paper.
Reading this article, I was I itially surprised to read to Japan had to import raw material given their strong paper tradition (shoji , washi, origami, etc.). But then the article states that
> Shrinking rural populations and climate change were driving Japan’s farmers to abandon their labor-intensive plots.
Makes sense to try to conserve this resource somehow.
Probably a lot cheaper to get it from Nepal.
Let me guess... Edgeworthia crysantha?
EDIT. Yup. I can see the article now. That photo is unmistakable. Is a famous Japanese shrub used since a lot of time. The only difference is the new area of culture it seems. Formerly known as E. papyrifera.
Can be cultured in gardens, reduced size, and very nice fragrant blossoms in early spring. Fluffy flowers with the feel of a teddy bear. Needs acid soil.
the article maybe claims it's a different species? the reporter doesn't seem to know much about botany, so they're a little vague
The photos depict this species[1]. This is the traditional one on Japanese bureaucracy for very important documents so is basically irreplaceable, because historical reasons.
Edgeworthia is a relatively small, relatively slow grower so there are also two species more that provide good quality fibers and could be mixed with that. One is a relative of the mulberry tree and the other a member of the same family that includes Edgeworthia.
[1] EDIT. Selfcorrection. The photos depict an Egdeworthia, but could be other species in the same genus as other have pointed, yep.
specifically argeli, a term which has no wikipedia article; mitsumata (which the article says is the name of the paper) is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgeworthia_chrysantha. the wikipedia article says the papers are washi and, in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_tissue, kitakata.
the econometrics from the article
> This year, Mr. Sherpa has hired 60 local Nepalis to help him process his harvest and expects to earn eight million Nepali rupees, or $60,000, in profit. (The average annual income in Nepal is about $1,340, according to the World Bank.) Mr. Sherpa hopes to produce 20 of the 140 tons that Nepal will be shipping to Japan. ¶ That’s a majority of the mitsumata needed to print yen ...
suggests that the total available profit is 420 thousand dollars, enough to support 313 nepalis (though perhaps the workers' wages are more than the landowner's profit, i suspect that they are, instead, smaller). the population of nepal is 30.7 million people, so this probably will not be a major new nepali export if it's just for the japanese mint. hopefully the article will make it fashionable among hipsters seeking better materials for their moleskines?
unfortunately the reporter did not think it was important to include the scientific name of the plant, so i guess we're out of luck
edit: as twic points out, it's almost certainly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgeworthia_gardneri, so i've updated wikipedia
> Edgeworthia gardneri (common names: Indian papertree,[2] Nepalese paperbush;[2] Nepali: अर्गेली (Argelee))[3]
Hum. If is E. gardneri then is not culture, is dismantlement of the nepali forests to make money (literally). That would be very sad.
hey, this is great! thanks!
I wonder if the demand is expected to remain stable..
The article mentions that Japan redesigns its currency every 20 years, and they're doing so this year.
> hopefully the article will make it fashionable among hipsters seeking better materials for their moleskines?
If that happens we’ll be reading articles about how unfair it is that western consumers are pricing the Nepalese people out of their local products (a la quinoa).
I don’t think all the hipsters in the world could consume that much specialty paper in a year, so it’s unlikely to be an issue.
you can read that stuff if you like i guess. in fact if you really want to read it you can get gpt-4 to generate it today, without having to wait for it to actually happen: http://sprunge.us/REx4gD
Clarification - not one single shrub
A veritable shrubbery, Ni!
Does anyone know how mitsumata got to Japan in the first place.
"Traditional paper" I imagine is something they've had since before the age of European colonization which brought all sorts of trade/exchange. Eg. The national-dish of 'curry' in Japan is a British twist on Indian one, and so you almost inevitably find Beef in it.
it grows wild in china, which is where paper was invented, and which is separated from japan by the east china sea; shanghai is only about 1000km from kyushu. korea, which borders china, is even closer, about 200km: https://www.google.com/maps/@32.7650836,121.5784141,6z?entry...
if you count the ryukyu islands as 'japan', ishigaki is only about 100 km from taiwan
european colonization is totally irrelevant here
Money doesn’t grow on trees but grows as shrubs
And the people of Nepal supply the raw labor used by many of the Gulf states
Ghurkas:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurkha
I didn’t realise there were Ghurkas in the Indian army.
Also increasingly recruited into the russian army for use as cannon fodder, you don't hear much fierce invincible Ghurka news about those for some reason.
Also in British army
Japan's Currency is around Similar to Nepalese rupees in exchange rates.
Sourcing the raw material of bank notes from Nepal? Seems a bit off from an environmental standpoint by hauling materials halfway across the globe from Himalaya.
How about plastic notes? They are durable, recyclable, and because they are money, not likely to end up in our oceans as wastes.
It’s not halfway across the globe. Not even quarter way. Meanwhile, the US one dollar note is made with flax imported from Belgium (also not halfway across the globe, but farther away).
No, they are not flying non-stop from Himalaya as you assume.
I did a rough calculation using [0][1]. Not including the land part, just the sea route, it is 5396 nm [0], roughly 9993 km and that is indeed halfway the globe.
By the way, from Antwerp, Belgium to Boston, MA is 3607 nm, roughly 6680 km, much shorter actually.
- [0] http://ports.com/sea-route/#/?a=4063&b=4693&c=Port%20of%20Ko... - [1] http://ports.com/sea-route/#/?a=3042&b=682&c=Port%20of%20Ant...
Why not locally sourced? I mean it's very possible flax isn't native to the Americas but it seems wasteful to source something from abroad.
And while 100+ years ago it made sense from a logistics point of view - use hard to find materials to fight counterfeiting - I don't believe that's a valid argument anymore.
The US dollar is only 25% linen, 75% cotton.
Plastic doesn't seem like a good solution, considering that notes are moved, stretched, flexed a lot and endure a lot of friction. Seems like a needless source for more plastic particles shedding into the environment.
You might be surprised to learn that a lot of the world uses polymer banknotes which are siignificantly more durable and last a lot longer than traditional 'paper' based currencies. The are incredibly hard to tear/break and they do not wear out or stretch. We've been using these in Australia since 1996.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_banknote
Having handled a fair amount of US currency I can say it _feels_ disgusting to handle after a certain amount of wear and often reminds me of a moist tissue. It also doesn't help that visually the notes all look very similar (as opposed to on polymer notes which have significantly different appearances and colours)
Japan has a long tradition of advanced papermaking.
> from an environmental standpoint
From an environmental standpoint all banknotes should be shredded and burned and everyone should use contactless means of payment.
I doubt that. Computing has a greenhouse effect similar to air traffic.
Edit: While true that's maybe not a good argument. Financial processing hardly is the biggest culprit. The worst impact / benefit ratio are probably video and ad distribution.
However, if you think how much Chinese (and similar) goods a $20 or 50€ note buys during its lifetime the impact of shipping the banknote material seems negligible.
Why?
Are you sure it is more environmental to keep all the computers, the network and other related infrastructure running (powered on, security updated, etc.) than it is to print and distribute banknotes every so many years and associated costs with that?
Sure. And we should do nothing but subsistence farming as well. But that's not really practical.
I agree. The impact (cost, energy...) is nothing compared to TikTok video streaming. Economy of scale
Is this true tho?